My main focus instead has been a juvenile red-tailed hawk, one of this year’s babies, who came in Friday thanks to a joint effort by volunteer transporters AJ Rogers and Laurie and Marshall Jackson. He wasn’t in great shape—emaciated, dehydrated, lethargic, bad case of frounce—so he had to be rehydrated before even offering food, which had to be small, frequent meals. And of course, we had to start treatment for frounce and I usually, as a precautionary measure, start treatment for capillaria, as well. He was perching on a low perch by sundown, which was a good sign.
Saturday, he continued to progress, even taking very small whole mice by that evening. This morning, however, after eating and being medicated, he slumped to the bottom of his box. When he made no attempt after an hour to get back on his perch, I replaced it with a “doughnut”, where he spent all day. Late in the afternoon he vomited up a foul-smelling brown sludge—no mouse bits in it at all—and seemed more alert afterwards but still made no attempt to stand or perch. He is still taking food, though, so we’ll just have to continue to play it by ear with him and keep our fingers crossed.
This adult great-crested flycatcher was also a transfer from Libby, who did alert me to his back-story. He was cat-attacked and while neither wing is broken, he cannot gain any altitude when he attempts to fly. This is typical with a coracoid fracture—similar to a collarbone fracture in humans. Sometimes these fractures heal to allow flight; sometimes not. We’ll just have to give him time. He is eagerly self-feeding, which these types of birds don’t always do in rehab when they’re adults, so he’s at least got that going for him!
When callers said they’d picked up a dove from the side of the road and could “see meat” it didn’t sound promising. When they arrived with the bird, her poor throat was ripped open and her breast feathers stripped away. They asked if she’d been hit by a car but this looked to me more like a young and inexperienced hawk had been spooked by traffic before he finished his meal. It’s that time of year. There was nothing to be done for this poor dove but end her suffering. The photo below, which is quite graphic, was taken after euthanasia.
The mallard continues to grow apace and has about another two weeks, maybe slightly less, before he’s good for release. Managed a really good close-up of those adorable duck feet this week!
The screech is about halfway through his molt; the feathers at the front of his head are growing back in nicely, so he doesn’t look so scalped now!
In the songbird flight, one house finch has been released; the other is getting close. The three mockers are almost ready for release, and the brown thrasher and bluebirds whose flight feathers were damaged waaay back at the end of May—remember them?—are FINALLY going through a juvenal molt and I’m starting to see some feather regrowth! Nobody in the flight is overly fond of the camera, so no decent shots of them this week; will keep trying for next week.
And while we did surpass our goal on the fundraiser, I’m keeping it active till the end of the month, as originally scheduled, in case anyone wants to make a last-minute donation.
And while we did surpass our goal on the fundraiser, I’m keeping it active till the end of the month, as originally scheduled, in case anyone wants to make a last-minute donation.
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